For me, I believe that people influence others most. It's a fact of life. I mean look at religion, god is in all of us- he influences us. He tells us in our hearts what is right or wrong. Our best friends tell us that he/she isn't right for us- we dump them. They help us move on. Yet in many other ways society has lead to a generation of teenagers who don't have the self confidence to do what they can with the potential that they don't know they have. The normal thing to hear nowadays is "I don't think so" or "maybe, but I'm not sure". There aren't as many sure-thing yes and no's. In fact, I've never gone a day without a single ounce of doubt.
It's a sad reality, but the truth of the matter is that a lot of people are not as optimistic as they used to be. Optimism for them is "I'll get seven hours of sleep" instead of "I am going to march up to that boy grab him by the back of his neck and kiss him like he's never been kissed before". I don't think the former is quite as exciting as the latter. People nowadays seem unable to look for the silver lining. People nowadays say "I'm going to die- I'm not going to live after this" for simple things (I should know, I do this), instead of saying "I'll try my best and even if I don't do well at least I tried".
So the lesson today that I'm trying to tell you at 11:04 PM on a school night is a simple one. Everyone today is so caught up in putting themselves down that one day they won't be able to come back up. We have to learn to see through an optimistic point of view if we ever want to cherish the reality of situations. For, although you may be pleasantly surprised, I think that earning "it" after lots of "I knew I could do it" pays off a lot more.
Optimistically yours,
karma police
p.s. I'm sleepy...